Cycle of Spell-Lands

[Ephraim]

This is just an idea I was tinkering with -- what if a land optionally had an effect when it came into play, in exchange for some penalty. At first, I thought I could just have the penalty be that they come into play tapped, but then I realized they'd be strictly better than basic lands, since you would have the option of playing them normally or of playing them for their special effect, making them more versatile. Then, I thought up the idea showcased below. You can get the spell effect, but it permanently drains the essence of the land, so that it can only give you colourless mana. The other possibility is that these simply come into play [tapped] with an essence counter on them. The essence counter can be removed to generate the spell effect, after which they'll only produce colourless mana.

***

Black Spell-Land
Land
When ~this~ comes into play, you may put an essence counter on it. If you don't, return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
: If ~this~ has an essence counter on it, add to your mana pool. Otherwise, add to your mana pool.

Red Spell-Land
Land
When ~this~ comes into play, you may put an essence counter on it. If you don't, ~this~ deals 3 damage to target player.
: If ~this~ has an essence counter on it, add to your mana pool. Otherwise, add to your mana pool.

Blue Spell-Land
Land
When ~this~ comes into play, you may put an essence counter on it. If you don't, draw two cards then discard two cards.
: If ~this~ has an essence counter on it, add to your mana pool. Otherwise, add to your mana pool.

Green Spell-Land
Land
When ~this~ comes into play, you may put an essence counter on it. If you don't, shuffle up to four cards from your graveyard into your library.
: If ~this~ has an essence counter on it, add to your mana pool. Otherwise, add to your mana pool.

White Spell-Land
Land
When ~this~ comes into play, you may put an essence counter on it. If you don't, gain 2 life for each creature you control.
: If ~this~ has an essence counter on it, add to your mana pool. Otherwise, add to your mana pool.

[Ephraim]

Current Wording:

Graveway
Land
Graveway comes into play tapped.
When Graveway comes into play, you may put an essence counter on it. If you don't, return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
{T}: If Graveway has an essence counter on it, add {B} to your mana pool. Otherwise, add {1} to your mana pool.


Lavatrack
Land
Lavatrack comes into play tapped.
When Lavatrack comes into play, you may put an essence counter on it. If you don't, Lavatrack deals 3 damage to target player.
{T}: If Lavatrack has an essence counter on it, add {R} to your mana pool. Otherwise, add {1} to your mana pool.


Thoughtpike
Land
Thoughtpike comes into play tapped
When Thoughtpike comes into play, you may put an essence counter on it. If you don't, draw two cards then discard two cards.
{T}: If Thoughtpike has an essence counter on it, add {U} to your mana pool. Otherwise, add {1} to your mana pool.


Vimpath
Land
Vimpath comes into play tapped.
When Vimpath comes into play, you may put an essence counter on it. If you don't, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.
{T}: If Vimpath has an essence counter on it, add {G} to your mana pool. Otherwise, add {1} to your mana pool.


Trucelane
Land
~This~ comes into play tapped.
When ~this~ comes into play, you may put an essence counter on it. If you don't, target player skips his or her next combat phase.
{T}: If ~this~ has an essence counter on it, add {W} to your mana pool. Otherwise, add {1} to your mana pool.

[Jacob Orlove]

Green and White are much weaker than the rest. I like how these add late-game utility to the lands, though.

[Ephraim]

I tried to select 1-cc sorceries as the source for the abilities. I can go look at 1-cc instants and 2-cc sorceries to see if I can find anything better to give to green and white.

For green, how would [card]Battlegrowth[/card] or [card]Magnify[/card] or even just "Creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn." work?

For white, I could go with, "Target player skips his or her next combat phase."

[Jacob Orlove]

Those sound like much more interesting options.

[Nazdakka]

Aren't these all REALLY good, especially the blue and black ones? You're getting lands which can be used as if they are basics (barring non-basic hate) but can also be used to do something else. What deck wouldn't play a full set of whichever of these are on-colour? I don't think these can realistically produce coloured mana unless you load on another drawback :-/

[combo_dude]

How about:

When {this} comes into play, you may put three essence counters on {this}. If you don't, then {sorcery effect}.

T: add 1 to your mana pool.
Remove an essence counter from {this}, T: add C to your mana pool.

Then it's still got the options, as well as being almost the same for when you really need the coloured mana.

[Ephraim]

I think I'm going to go with this template then, to ensure they're not so much better than basic lands:

~This~
Land

~This~ comes into play tapped with an essence counter on it.
{T}, Remove an essence counter from ~this~: <effect>
{T}: If ~this~ has an essence counter on it, add {C} to your mana pool. Otherwise, add {1} to your mana pool.

It comes into play tapped, has to tap to use the effect of the essence counter, and can't generate coloured mana once it's used the essence counter.

[Jacob Orlove]

But that lets it produce colored mana for a while, and then use the counter.

I think these are pretty fair, because if you use them early, you're stuck with colorless mana. If you use them late, then you aren't really get much of an advantage by saving U on your Careful Study.

I guess technically there's no real "cost" to running 4 of these over 4 basics, but there are a lot of cases where basics are more useful.

[Ephraim]

I'm trying out some names for these. The ones that are up now are definitely not final. Graveway and Thoughtpike sound pretty cool to me. Lavatrack isn't bad. Peacelane and Mightpath are both kind of lame. The names don't have to be various sorts of avenues, though. If anybody has some other idea of what flavour these could embody, I'd love to hear it.

[Matt]

"Peacelane" is a lame name but "Graveway" is awesome. Maybe these could have a subtype associated with them?

[Nefarias]

I'm not sure about he rules regarding it, but does the current wording suffer from the Rhystic Cave style rules issue? Say I have a Wasteland and a Graveway w/o an essence counter, and I want to cast a 1B spell. I don't even know the exacts of the Rhystic Cave style, but something about having the theoretical capability to cast it, so you can announce it and then pay for it. I could be wrong, but thought I should mention it.

As far as the mechanics themselves, I really liek these. I think it's really close as to whether or not they are better than basics: can't be fetched, can be Wasted, deal damage via PoP, etc. I think they're okay, but it's borderline.

[Jacob Orlove]

If there's a rules issue, you could make it two abilities:

T: add 1.
T: Add B. Play this ability only if blah blah blah.

[Ephraim]

I don't think there's a rules issue. The problem with Rhystic cave is that it's supposed to give an opponent an opportunity to do something, which he doesn't have an opportunity to do if you're using Rhystic Cave during the announcement of another spell. These don't give an opponent an opportunity to do anything.

[PucktheCat]

there are a lot of cases where basics are more useful.

Is this true?  When you draw one it is either an basic land (essentially) or a mini-spell + a colorless land.  That is,  it it is either exactly as good as a basic land (when you don't use the spell effect and play it for colored mana) or better than a basic land (when having the effect is more important than the colored mana).

I think it's really close as to whether or not they are better than basics: can't be fetched, can be Wasted, deal damage via PoP, etc. I think they're okay, but it's borderline.

Is the same thing true in T2/Block?  I don't know, but I am not aware of too many recent cards that punish non-basics.  Should we make a card that is strictly better than basic land, even if it is a non-basic?  WotC hasn't done so since Duals.  They seem to have made a policy choice that the game shouldn't rely on hosers to keep mana bases in line.

Honestly, I don't care if we do, but the question should at least be confronted head on before we do so.

Leo

[Jacob Orlove]

Well, cards like Vedalken Shackles, Sakura-Tribe Elder, and others strongly encourage players to use basics, but it is true that these are never worse than basics, and often better.

What if we add a 1-life payment to the CIP? I hate generic costs like that, but it's about as small as we can get, because these are already pretty close to basics in terms of power.

[Ephraim]

I've just added that these come into play tapped. It's typical, but if it's good enough for many of the cycles of almost-basics that Wizards prints, it's good enough for us. I also came up with a name for the green one that I like and a slightly better name for the white one than Peacelane (Okay, so Trucelane is barely better.) Unless somebody can come up with some better names for these, I think I'm going to call for them to be closed in 24 Hours.

[dandan]

No Man's Land is an interesting name for the White one - the lull in the fighting, the place where you may or may not be fighting, etc. It would be weird to have a land called Land though. To me that is a plus.

[Ephraim]

The name isn't bad, Dandan, but I wanted to keep the patten among the names as well. Each one has the format <An idea relevant to the colour><A synomnym for road> as its name. If I change just the white one, it would look odd.

[Joblin Velder]

Maybe make them legendary to discourage people from running them as a 4 of?

[MrZuccinniHead]

The red one is too strong.  Fireblast was -3 CA for 4 damage.  This is 0 CA for 3 damage.  That is even better when you think of "Return a land to owner's hand" cards or Exploration-type cards.

[Ephraim]

Fireblast was also instant-speed, had an alternate casting cost, and could deal damage to both creatures and players. By comparison, this is sorcery speed, deals less damge, can only be "paid for" in one way, and can only deal damage to players.

[MrZuccinniHead]

heh...i missed the "players" clause.

[Matt]

Closed and added.[/color]